THE GREATEST SPLIT ON EARTH

[Kerwintootle]

A bit of light hearted banter as I'm bored again :wink:

Not to be taken seriously. I heard a live recording recently and heard the most amazing split note. To avoid hurting peoples feelings in talking about other peoples splits, I thought I would share my greatest split with you.

The grand shield a few years ago I was playing principal with Wallace Arnold Rothwell and the test piece was Festival Music by Eric Ball. Anyway, band were great and it got to the last few bars and I was covering the sop part that had a trill on a G to an A above the stave which then finishes on a top C. Well, the trill was great and I then got complacent and missed the C completely and hit a Bb instead. The noise that reverberated around the Victoria Hall in Bolton was something to behold. You could hear the ouches from the audience and then last note was a bit of a damp quib after that! Needless to say the band won anyway. But I certainly looked for a cave to crawl into.

What have been your best splits on the contest stage?

This is just for fun by the way.

 

[Dave Payn]

I've lost count..... too many to remember the 'greatest'! :cry: :lol:

 

[andyp]

Not done any "memorable" splits, just my share of normal clips and glitches (are there such things as "normal" splits?!?), but have had that "wrong note ringing round the hall" feeling while helping another band out at a concert. Tried to be clever and transpose the sop part onto Bb, worked out last note was a top C and hit a beauty..........right in a minim rest a beat before the band came in with the real last note. There's never a trap door under you when you need one.............
I have a re-mastered old recording on CD, and right in the middle of the quiet part of the overture to "The Mikado" you can hear a bass mouthpiece drop on the floor and roll right across the stage (I'm guessing it's a bass, it's that loud!). Sometimes recordings are too revealing!

 

[johnflugel]

Three for you:

1) Dyke playing Masquerade at the RAH 2002 - Michelle Ibbotsons high Bb on the pause before the fugue in the final movement. Went something like 'spppppppeeeeeee-yaaaaaaahhhh'. Just of those things but was made worse by the fact she faced out to get above a band blowing heavily!

2) Another Dyke one: I have a live recording of them at Regent Hall under Jim Watson playing 'Le Roi Dys'. This was a truly amazing performance from everyone. One of the stars of that performance was Kevin Crockford (who the arrangement must have been made for!), who it was all going swimmingly for till he smacked a seventh (very very loudly) on those sop and euph demis at the end. The second though, he hit smack in the middle! Great performance great performance!

3) Just to prove I am not 'Dyke' bashing - me playing Tristan on Sunday night. Have since listened to the recording and my high Ab entry in the cadenza sections was a split and a half! Infact, the initial entry sounds like I try to lip trill it :lol: Roy Roe described it a minor slip.....I live in hope that that is the worst one ever from me and they cannot be more spectacular!

John

 

[Aidan]

I split 1 note through the whole of (sh)Atlantic at the masters a few years ago. Of course it happened to be in the middle of the big horn solo, and was the highest, loudest note in the phrase! complacency struck and I nailed the rest but misspitched the top note by a whole tone!!! amazingly none of the band, or adjudicators(!!!! no mention in crit) seemed to notice!!! result

 

[Okiedokie of Oz]

I'm lucky. Mine's been whacked on CD and being sold at $20 a pop.

In A Christmas Festival, there's a eupho duet, of Silent night. Nothing complex. Yet somehow I managed to find myself working so hard to make an impression thta I goofed up a C. It isn't so noticable to the casual listener. But I know it's there.

 

[MRSH]

Not exactly a split - I play percussion (or a band thing) but............

In a performance of Wagner's Falstaff I was in the pit orchestra and the particular section was "big and loud". But it had a GP in the middle of it which happened to be at the start of a new stave. Unfortunately, on the first night, this GP contained THE biggest bass drum 'thwack' I've ever mustered. The look I got from the conductor was priceless as I just looked at him and shrugged my shoulders.

I finished the run but it took him 3 years to get over it.

 

[lynchie]

blackpool youth entertainment championships this year... went on stage to open our set with the peanut vendor (trom solo beginning) thinking right, last ever gig with this band, solo in front of lots of people, just hit the first note and the rest will play itself... so all set, smile for the crowd, 4th position, and the best turn on an E I have ever played!! luckily the rest went ok!

 

[ukdrummerboy]

In a concert i playing the wood block (at ff, so it had to be heard above the band!) I hit it and the stick split in two, sending the front half flying into the audience from the stage (as i was sat behind trombs.) That was my greatest split!

 

[cornetgirl]

At Preston this year, playing the flugel solo in Tallis, my version of a top B could only be described as a nice lip trill - much to the puzzlement of VC who didn't think I knew HOW to lip trill - and neither did I! No mention of the split from the box tho...

Will try not to do any classic clangers in Tristan at Darlo next week!

Rach x

 

[Mike Saville]

Not contesting but bad nonetheless,

During Mussorsgky's Night On A Bare Mountain (the Maxell tape advert if anyone remembers) the trombones have a FF entry with the main tune above the rest of the orchestra - the first few notes were OK, the concert Ab however didn't make it out of the instrument in 1 piece and splattered itself all over the cathedral. It wouldn't have been so bad, but the cathedral in question has a bad echo causing my split to go round and round and round . . . for the next 7 or 8 seconds!

 

[Dave Euph]

Too many to count, but about a million and a half on the trombone ... I always try to put too much air through it ...

 

[winterman]

Three for you:
3) Just to prove I am not 'Dyke' bashing - me playing Tristan on Sunday night. Have since listened to the recording and my high Ab entry in the cadenza sections was a split and a half! Infact, the initial entry sounds like I try to lip trill it :lol: Roy Roe described it a minor slip.....

Hehe... blame it on our upbringing in Divisional Youth Band John, I gave a cracking air shot start to my first upper A in my Solo in Coventry Variations on Saturday.. Everyone said it didn't really come across that badly (yeah right!!) but those microphones are evil for showing your real performance..

Mic Tyler
Principle Euph
Drighlington Band

 

[The Cornet King]

Best split i ever heard that sent me away chuckling :lol: (i know i shouldnt but i couldnt help it) was at a junior band contest.

One junior band had 'borrowed' a sop player ( who happens to play for a famous Yorks championship band) and the piece i belive was 'eve of the war'. The sop part goes rather high and the sop went for a note near the end at what seemed like fffff dynamic. It was a repeating phrase...he hit it the first 2 times and then *splat*...all over the hall...with a 10 second echo!! A real beauty!

The best one i have ever done was at Malton Contest a few years back. We were playing the Trom solo Angels Guard Thee and it opens with 2 split solo cornets completely on their own. I was playing the top part (started on a 4th space E) and completely split the first note and went on to produce a lip trill of some sorts swapping between the E, C below and G above.

Oh how i wished the earth could swallow me up! I have never laughed at a split since! :roll:

 

[MRSH]

causing my split to go round and round and round . . . for the next 7 or 8 seconds!

Slightly off topic - my apologies but..........................this reminds me not of a musician split but an audience 'split'.

Playing Dream of Gerontius (Elgar) in a church with the audience sitting on wooden pews - no cushions.

Came to a bit that was loud and got louder and louder until suddenly everything just stops. Someone in the audience thought this big, big crescendo would be just the right time to.........how can say.........relieve him/herself of some hot air. Unfortunately, he couldn't have know the piece very well because.........yes, you've guessed it............right at the point of the cut off in the music he decided to let rip. On the wooden pews it resounded around the church for ages. The orchestra was in stitches, the choir was in stitches and the conductor just about managed to hold the whole thing together.

I bet the person concerned wished the ground opened up.

Classic.

 

[Dave Payn]

causing my split to go round and round and round . . . for the next 7 or 8 seconds!

I bet the person concerned wished the ground opened up.

Why not? His a*se obviously did! Brilliant!!

Thank you. I've been in a foul mood all day (self inflicted) after my idiotic and pointless ramblings in the 'Composer' thread earlier this morning. Cheered me up 'no end'! ;-)

 

[Kerwintootle]

yes, you've guessed it............right at the point of the cut off in the music he decided to let rip. On the wooden pews it resounded around the church for ages. The orchestra was in stitches, the choir was in stitches and the conductor just about managed to hold the whole thing together.

I bet the person concerned wished the ground opened up.

Classic.

Priceless. :lol: There's nothing like trying to play when you are wheezing with laughter. In a church too1

 

[ScrapingtheBottom]

I think it was in a trom solo version of 'feelings' hit a top B instead of an A and did my first and only ever lip trill.

 

[Keppler]

I detect a pattern here.... maybe we have stumbled across a new method of teaching lip trills....

 

[ScrapingtheBottom]

Not recommended for the faint of heart!